Islam in Spain

Islam in Spain
Regions with significant populations
In absolute frequencies: Catalonia, Andalusia, Community of Madrid, Valencian Community, Region of Murcia
Religions
Majority Sunni, minority Shia
Languages
Main: Spanish, Arabic, Berber and others
Islam by country
World percentage of Muslims by country
Africa
Asia
Americas
Europe
Oceania
Islam portal
Islam in Europe
by percentage of country population[1]
  95–100%
  90–95%
  50–55%
  30–35%
  10–20%
  5–10%
  4–5%
  2–4%
  1–2%
  < 1%

Spain is a Christian majority country, with Islam being a minority religion, practised mostly by immigrants from Muslim majority countries, and their descendants.

Islam was a major religion on the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and ending (at least overtly) with its prohibition by the modern Spanish state in the mid-16th century and the expulsion of the Moriscos in the early 17th century, an ethnic and religious minority of around 500,000 people.[2] Although a significant proportion of the Moriscos returned to Spain, or avoided expulsion, the practice of Islam had faded into obscurity by the 19th century[3] after many years of crypto-Muslims practicing their faith in secret. [citation needed]

While the 2022 official estimation of Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) indicates that 2.8% of the population of Spain has a religion other than Catholicism,[4] according to an unofficial estimation of 2020 by the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE) the Muslim population in Spain represents the 4.45% of the total Spanish population as of 2019, of whom 42% were Spanish citizens (most of them with foreign family origins), 38% Moroccans, and 20% of other nationalities.[5] In 2024 according to the Islamic Commission of Spain, there are 2.5 million Muslims in Spain, which is about 5.32 percent of the population of 47 million Spaniards. The number of converts, as per the commission, has increased to an estimated 10 times in the past three decades.[6]

  1. ^ "Muslim Population Growth in Europe Pew Research Center". 2024-07-10. Archived from the original on 2024-07-10.
  2. ^ Dadson, Trevor J. (15 October 2018). "Tolerance and Coexistence in Early Modern Spain: Old Christians and Moriscos in the Campo de Calatrava". Boydell & Brewer Ltd – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vinculos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ CIS."Barómetro de Enero de 2022", 3,777 respondents. The question was "¿Cómo se define Ud. en materia religiosa: católico/a practicante, católico/a no practicante, creyente de otra religión, agnóstico/a, indiferente o no creyente, o ateo/a?".
  5. ^ "Estudio demográfico de la población musulmana Explotación estadística del censo de ciudadanos musulmanes en España referido a fecha 31/12/2019" (PDF). Unión de Comunidades Islámicas de España. Observatorio Andalusí: 14. 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.